Wednesday, June 27, 2007

I just pawed through issue 1 of Avengers Classic, and while really good, I'm reserving judgement until issue #2.

I'm a big fan of Classic X-Men, have that whole run, and the bar's set pretty high from that series.

For those not familiar with the gimmick, the "Classic" iteration reprints original comics -- in this case, starting with Avengers #1. What hopefully sets this apart from just being another way for Marvel to milk the franchise, or a retread of the Marvel Masterworks or (a more expensive version) of the Essential trades, is the new, extra stories at the end of the book.

Classic X-Men, with original stories from Chris Claremont and John Bolton, really exploded the X-Men mythos for me. There's a particular Magneto story that first woke me up to the viability of comics as high art.

But like I said, the bar's been set pretty high. The backup stories in this issue #1 are good -- but they're tongue-in-cheek fun, which isn't what I want. Fortunately for me, according to the explanation from editors Andy Schmidt and Mark D. Beazley in the back of the book, the non-serious take is just for issue one, and more serious stories and character exposition, a la Classic X-Men, will be the norm.

The regular backup team will be writer Dwayne McDuffie (who I borderline worship, but who never returns my Emails), and artist Michael Avon Oeming, whose new painted style needs to grow on me.

And let's face it, it's the backup stories that need to sell the book, since the original issues are available six ways to Sunday (not least of which is in a DVD of virtually all scanned Avengers issues with original adds and letters -- albeit often from nasty looking copies -- from Graphic Imaging Technologies). These stories need to rock, because having the original issue's cover and 12-cent price on the flip side of a $4 book is a bit painful (starting with issue #2, the price should drop to $3).

But the other big selling point? Like Classic X-Men, covers by Arthur "Art" Adams. That may be worth the price of admission by itself.